


tie your laces, idiot

by aishiteArtemis



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Confused Naegi Makoto, Dork Naegi Makoto, F/F, Fluff, He's very awkward, M/M, Mutual Pining, One-Sided Fukawa Toko/Togami Byakuya, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Togami Byakuya, Soft Togami Byakuya, Togami Byakuya Being An Asshole, Togami Byakuya is Bad at Feelings, Togami Byakuya-Centric, awkward naegi, but shhh its secret, idk he tries to b but actually hes very soft, im a kinnie ok, times that by two, very very confused, when i am less lazy, wow tags take a long time, yeah we get it every tag i do for naegi is like squared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26377168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aishiteArtemis/pseuds/aishiteArtemis
Summary: naegi falls, togami catches him. many times, and in many ways.
Relationships: Celestia Ludenberg & Togami Byakuya, Kirigiri Kyoko/Celestia Ludenberg, Naegi Makoto & Togami Byakuya, Naegi Makoto/Togami Byakuya, implied tho - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 229
Collections: Purrsonal Picks





	tie your laces, idiot

**Author's Note:**

> djkghsdk i had this all written down like three weeks ago but typing it up was so boriiiing  
> anyways enjoy

The first day of school at Hope’s Peak Academy dawned warm, although cloudy, and the students of the school, new and old, made their way inside. Some ran to their classes, chatting loudly to their friends, quieter ones walking quickly, staring down at their feet, and the more formal ones walking straight with their heads held high.

Byakuya Togami happened to be one of the latter. Glancing around, he sighed at the louder ones. Even though this school was for people with exceptional talents, it seemed not everyone took it as seriously as he did. Bothersome, but he resolved to simply ignore it. He retrieved his perfectly folded timetable from his top pocket and examined it, looking for his class.

Counting along the doors, he came to the one marked with the correct class number, and opened the door. A tall, black-haired boy seemed to be attempting to get the class in order, a blonde-haired girl was making faces at him, and another girl with short, dark hair stood near her, conversing with a serious girl with black twin-tails. Much to Byakuya’s displeasure, the class seemed to be in quite a state of disarray, due to a complete lack of a teacher. Sighing melodramatically again, he took a seat near the front of the class, away from the rowdier people at the back, and crossed one leg over the other as was a habit of his. Hopefully the teacher would arrive soon.

For lack of anything better to do, Byakuya looked absentmindedly around the room, allowing himself to relax a little, and this was how he ended up noticing another boy stumble through the classroom door. Light brown hair that looked like it hadn’t been combed in weeks, somehow looking soft nevertheless; light green eyes, leaning a little towards hazel, looking curiously at the scene; pale skin with freckles spread over his nose and cheeks. He wore a dark green hoodie underneath a blazer (why? Was he that cold?) and red sneakers with trailing white laces.

Byakuya’s parents had taught him to tie his shoes at a young age, reasoning that untied laces could often be a recipe for disaster. And indeed, in this case, they were, because as this boy made his way down the aisle to find a seat (or perhaps talk to someone), he stood on one of his laces, and subsequently the next step sent him flying. Unfortunately for Byakuya, he went flying in his direction. Instinctively, he put out his hands, as if catching a ball, and ended up catching the strange hoodie boy before he crashed to the floor.

Realising he was no longer falling, the boy cast his eyes upward and their gazes met for a moment, before he found his feet and scrambled up quickly, wearing an embarrassed, red face. “I- I’m sorry, are you alright? I didn’t mean to... to fall on you, I’m just awfully clumsy, Komaru is always saying that-”

“I am fine.” Byakuya replied quickly, with a tone of irritation. “And I would agree with whoever Komaru is.”

The boy laughed awkwardly. “Ah, that’s good. Sorry again... Eh, what’s your name?”

“Byakuya Togami,” he replied shortly, finding it hard to believe that this nervous wreck was an ultimate. (Ultimate Nervous Wreck?)

“Sorry, Togami. I’m Makoto Naegi, by the way.” said Naegi, with an easy smile. “Thanks for catching me, by the way.”

“Mmm,” Byakuya grumbled. “Be more careful next time.”

Naegi nodded and headed up towards the back of the class, finally pausing and talking to a tall, lilac-haired girl who looked honestly nothing like the sort of person Byakuya would’ve thought he’d want to interact with. It puzzled him, to be honest, and the fact that Makoto Naegi’s stupid face remained in his mind for much of the day was just another mystery.

x x x

The second time Byakuya caught Naegi was several days later, in the library. Libraries were a place in which Byakuya was rather in his element, a fact that had not been changed greatly despite that bothersome girl Fukawa, who often hung around him unbidden, like a lost puppy (or indeed, a bad smell) when he was in the school library. The uniform shelves, organised so one could easily find a certain title; the slightly musty smell of books; and the quietness helped clear his mind and helped him relax a little.

Byakuya had been walking through one of the aisles at a leisurely pace, several books in his arms which he intended to return, when suddenly his eyes caught on a greenish blur. Before he had time to figure out what it was, his books were knocked form his arms, crashing to the ground, and instinctively he once again held out his arms to catch the blur.

The books made a loud thump as they hit the floor and Byakuya identified the blur as Makoto Naegi.

“I’m sorry!” said the other boy in an apologetic tone. “Oh, uh, hello, Togami.”

Byakuya just stared at him for a moment. How could someone be so extraordinarily clumsy? Naegi looked sheepishly down at his shoes, which were, of course, untied.

“A word of advice,” Byakuya scowled, rubbing his arm where the smaller boy had crashed into it, at top speed he might add. “Maybe you should tie your shoelaces. You might not trip as much and so not crash into people.”

He blinked. “Uh, yes, I suppose. I just forget these things a lot.”

“As is evident. Perhaps people would be less annoyed at you as a result.”

“Possibly, though some of that may be just me as a person. I’m not the most interesting kid ever.”

Something about that statement irked Byakuya. Such self-depreciative statements did not usually bother him (usually the person actually was that way, or they were doing it for attention). But he somehow felt that, while Naegi’s statement was untrue, the boy genuinely believed it. The smile with sad eyes, slight fidgeting, the tone he’d said it in… that did bother him.

Byakuya took a breath. “I shouldn’t think so, I’d barter it’s the shoes.”

“Mmm,” Naegi replied. “I’ll help you pick up your books, at least, then I’ll be off. Sorry to have bothered you,” he finished, crouching down and picking up most of the books to be stacked back up in his arms. Opting not to help, Byakuya simply watched until he was done. Naegi straightened up and passed the stack of books back to him (they were almost touching his nose; the boy was oddly short). With a slight brush of fingers, he let go, then stepped back, almost too quickly.

“Well, uh, see you later,” Naegi smiled.

Instead of giving him some snarky remark, Byakuya surprised himself by replying with a simple “Yes.”

x x x

The third time Byakuya caught Naegi, he had had enough. After catching hold of his hoodie as he went flying for the nth time that day, and pulling him back to his feet, Byakuya crossed his arms. “Are you actually serious? You need to be more careful.”

“Uh, I try…”

Seeing his trailing shoelaces, Byakuya huffed, “Can you not even tie your shoelaces or something?”

Naegi opened his mouth but no words came out. After a moment of this Byakuya stood up from the chair he had been sitting on and tapped it with his hand to signal to Naegi to put his foot there, because there was no chance he was going to kneel down to do anything. Naegi looked a little confused for a moment but quickly caught on. There was silence for about a minute as Byakuya tied his laces, only broken by the swapping of feet halfway through.

“There,” Byakuya said, in a slightly less annoyed tone than before. “Now you won’t be falling over any more, correct?”

Naegi’s face reddened. “I… yes. Thank… Thank you, Togami.”

“Mmm, right,” he said non-committally. “It’s only so you stop annoying me, don’t get the wrong idea.”

Still smiling, but a tad more dejectedly, Naegi said, “Well, still. Thanks.”

The boy got stuck in his head again that day, like an annoyingly catchy song that you can’t remember the words to.

x x x

The shoelace tying did become something of a routine. Naegi had sort of hovered a few times, unsure of himself, but by the time two weeks had passed, it became simply normal for him to come into class and put his foot on the chair beside Togami.

He supposed they might be acquaintances now? Naegi often chatted to him while he tied his laces, just about ordinary school things, like the homework they had been assigned, what he had for lunch and sometimes his sister Komaru, but he thought it still counted. They had only had one talk about Togami’s siblings, a brief one since to tell the truth he didn’t really know them very well. Naegi had seemed sad about that – ‘Komaru ‘n me are really close’. After Byakuya had corrected his grammar, they had moved onto something else.

Logically, Togami knew that at some point he would actually have to teach Naegi to tie his own shoelaces, he wasn’t going to be around forever, but he didn’t really have the heart to tell him and he did admittedly enjoy their morning chats. He’d miss those. So he kept his mouth shut for the moment.

However, lately, he’d been developing some… feelings. He had never really had feelings of this sort before, but Celestia, the serious black-haired girl he’d noticed on the first day, and another acquaintance, said it was likely a crush. They had a strange sense of comradery, bonded only by their similar seriousness and ‘crushes’ on a pair of friends. The girl, despite her demeanour, was actually something of a hopeless romantic, and he had had to listen to many endless rants over how pretty she found Kirigiri. Despite this, she was otherwise level-headed, and her declaration that he had a… crush on someone worried him more than it should. Especially since the someone was a messy-haired boy who couldn’t tie his shoelaces.

The so-called ‘crush’ was bothersome, but oddly nice at the same time. He appreciated every short laugh the boy let out, but it did mean he had to pause for a second to get his heart back into gear. The intrusive thoughts of him were also an issue, but it was strangely calming to drift off into a daydream, just for a minute. A slight waste of time, but he didn’t really care as much as he should.

The worst, though, was getting embarrassed. Togamis did not get embarrassed – yet every time Naegi complimented him like it was literally nothing, he felt his face heating up. In a good way, granted, but it made him feel out of control and he wasn’t used to that at all.

It will fade, he assured himself as he tied one shoe and Naegi discussed how Komaru had decided to make lunch for herself and now he only had leftovers from last night to eat. He laughed afterwards and Togami’s heart did the malfunction thing.

Maybe he should get that checked out.

x x x

The crush had not faded by a week later, and Byakuya was searching for some kind of resolution when it came to him in the oddest way possible.

He had headed to the library in attempt to get some studying done, and Naegi had offered to come. Now he likely would not be getting any studying done, but it could wait. He hadn’t had a proper friend before, and even if he did have a crush on this one, it probably still counted and he didn’t mind talking to him at all. Liked it, to be honest.

Byakuya had been laughing at some joke Naegi had made when he suddenly became aware of someone watching him. His first thought was Fukawa, but he turned back to Naegi and discover it was him who had been staring at him.

“Togami?” Naegi said quietly.

“Yes?”

“I think I fell again.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, for you.”

Byakuya was silent for several seconds, and of course that was all the time it took for the idiot to start apologising. “I’m so sorry, that was so lame, wasn’t it, I had no right, I don’t even know you like bo- “

“You idiot,” Byakuya interrupted, and before said idiot could say anything more, he leaned forward and kissed him.

The kiss was chaste and a little awkward, their inexperience showing, but Byakuya for one didn’t mind, because it had Naegi in it, and with that came a childish sense of happiness and calm. Byakuya didn’t relax very much, as one might guess by his general demeanour, but somehow, he felt he could now. And so he did, and it felt amazing. Distantly, he was aware of Naegi’s hands around his neck, his hand in messy brown hair, which was, indeed, fluffy. He wanted the moment to last forever, to be completely honest.

When they separated finally for air, Byakuya stared down at Naegi, whose face had a pleasing red flush to it. “You know, that could even have been smooth if you weren’t so awkward.”

Naegi laughed, looking away. “Yeah.” He paused a moment.; “So does this mean… we’re… going out?”

Byakuya almost shook his head in awe. Of course Naegi would be the sort to say something like that. “I should think so, Naegi.”

“Makoto,” Naegi smiled. “I guess we should use first names now.”

“Alright, I’m Byakuya,” he replied, a rare smile ghosting across his face.

“That’s g-good,” Makoto smiled. They stood there in vaguely awkward silence until Naegi stood on his tiptoes and tentatively kissed him again. It was odd how such a small thing, merely the touching of lips, could cause so much emotion in Byakuya. But that was something for later.

They separated once again, and this time Makoto was the first to speak.

“To- Byakuya? I have a confession to make.”

“Alright. Go on.”

“I actually do know how to tie my shoelaces.”

**Author's Note:**

> alternate title: the one where naegi pretends he cant tie laces because pretty boy tie them instead [spam of bottom emojis]


End file.
